Make Flowers Masculine

Morning all.

Today, being a Tuesday means it's time for a new challenge over at Cardz4Guyz.

This week it's my turn to choose the theme and I went with -

CHRISTMAS IN JULY

That's it, we want to see your Christmas cards, a chance for you to get ahead in your Christmas makes.

I've noticed a few challenges that have had the same idea but the topic has been on the books for a couple of months now!

Anyway, here is my card.

I used a Woodware wreath stamp and a Paper Smooches greeting.

The layout was influenced by this card over at Muse Christmas Visions by Kimberly Weiner.

It did start out as a OLC but I managed to get ink on one corner whilst trimming it to size, :( .

Anyway  I managed to rescue it. I coloured the wreath with Copics and some Paper Effects White Pearl on the tiny white flowers and a pinky red gel pen was used over the really tiny dots. A little bit of blue was coloured  in behind the wreath for shadow and a scrap edged in the same blue Copic pen gave me the frame. Everything is mounted flat to be post friendly, I even used a scrap left over from diecutting a circle so the weight is reduced.

Quite a simple card, except for colouring the foliage!

For more Christmas inspiration, please check out the rest of the DT and our GD Sharon.

I'd like to join in over at -

      

Teacher Thanks

Told you it's been a busy week, I'm back to announce the start of a new challenge over at 

HLS Anything Goes with Dies.

Here is my card for your inspiration

 

This is the last of my thank you cards for my Grandson's teachers. I thought the black panel looked a little like a blackboard, not that they use them much these days, all hi tech, interactive white boards!

I've seen this done with happy and thought that I could do the same with a thanks.

The MFT small alphabet letters were cut from scraps of rainbow coloured card strips and placed on the black rectangle which had a white embossed sentiment stamped at the bottom. The black panel was then popped up on foam pads on a white linen base card, simples.

OK, please check out the rest of the DT and then why not join us.

I'd like to join up over at -

No Design Paper

GD at Tag You're it!

It's been a busy week week here in the craftroom, so  if you are looking for my STAMPlorations post you'll find it here.

This post is to share a little bit of good news, I've the privilege of guesting over at Tag you're It!

Here is my inspiration for you based on a gorgeous tag by Donna Mikasa.

Here is Donna's fab tag.

I took inspiration from her water colour washed background, white embossing and the black and white panel. I used a HLS set Doodled Flowers stamped and embossed in white then coloured with DIs in a w/c manner and a little strip of chevron DP, which I cut into a banner.

The leaves and flowers were fussy cut and placed onto the Poppy Stamps tag. The ribbon echoes the stitching on the tag and stamped items. A black embossed THANKS from the same set and a few black pearls finish it off.

Thanks for asking me to guest ladies, it was fun making this.

I'd like to join in over at -

       

Thanks Craft Stamper

Hi and welcome to a post to announce the start of STAMPlorations new theme and sketch challenge.

This is my card for your inspiration,

This month our theme is 

and this is our sketch.

You can choose either or both if you would like. I went with just the sketch this time.

I took a small liberty with the layout, moving my sentiment strip a little further down the panel, but you can still see the sketch.

Last month I was lucky enough to win a prize from Craft Stamper, some Infusions ink crystals. They are like Brushos which I've used for many many years, well before they gained their popularity amongst the card making community. I used them with primary kids in Art class, who loved the way the crystals explode on contact with water. Anyway this card uses Brushos and the Infusions crystals in different ways.

To start I stamped and masked a bunch of daisies in Weathered Wood DI, using one of the Bloom Sketches stamps onto a panel of watercolour paper. Then with some artists masking fluid, I painted over the petals. I added some stems and leaves by using a brush and a draughtman's ruling pen with more masking fluid, I used the same technique here.

Then I mixed some Turquoise Brusho in a palette and Prussian Blue in a spray bottle with some water. Using a w/c brush I washed some plain water over the unmasked area then dropped in some of the turquoise mixture followed by a stronger mix on the left handside of the flowers. While the ink was still wet I sprinkled some Leaf Green Brusho and Emerald Infussions over the panel, then sprayed the Prussion Blue mixture over, mopping up the excess. When totally dry I removed the masking fluid. Then using some of the emerald green Infusions in water and Weathered Wood DI I painted in the stems and leaves and with some Weathered Wood I washed in some shadows over the white petals. The centers were painted first with Mustard Seed DI then a few crystals of Lemonade Infusions were sprinked over to give a bit of texture.

Not sure about the Infusions, the colours don't appear as intense as the Brushos, but I will play with them a bit more!

The vellum panel was stamped with the sentiment from the Celebrate set and embossed with gold EP wrapping it around the trimmed panel, before mounting it on a white base card.

OK, that's all from me but please check out the rest of our fantastic DT as well as our fab GDs for this month, Harriet Skelly, Swapna Patil, and Helen Gullett. All the  usual Ts and Cs are to be found on the main blog too.

I'd like to link up over at -

Anything Goes with a Stamp

Welcome to a new baby girl

Good morning all.

It's time for a brand new challenge over at Cardz4Galz. This week we would love to see your projects that include -

GINGHAM

So much scope there I think. For my project I went with this.

Neighbours, whose land butts up to ours have just had a baby girl and my husband asked if I would make one of my cards to say congrats. So that's what I did. Gingham is perfect for a baby card and to mine I added one of the bears from LOTV's Bear Posie Trio. I made a little boy version a long time ago but it keeps popping up on my Blogger overview as one of my popular pins so I thought a pink version was on the cards, sorry Nich!

For this version I used my confetti plate from Sizzix and some odds and ends to fill the spaces, some inline with the panel, some popped and some recessed and Teddy was coloured with Copics, fussy cut the mounted on one of the cut outs coloured blue.

That's it from me, for more gingham inspiration, check out the rest of the team.

I'd like to join in over at -

Gingham Style

Double D Challenges -  Simply Gingham